Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“Wars always end, but after every war there is a post-war era, and it lasts longer than any war. And security architecture is built not only after the war, but also in the final stages of the war, so our task is to keep Ukraine strong... Europe’s security infrastructure is being determined by the war in Ukraine,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Espen Barth Eide. The Minister has also announced the government’s decision to provide an additional half a billion dollars to the PURL program, which aims to finance American weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Canada is allocating an additional $200 million to purchase weapons from the USA for the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the PURL program.

In total, Norway, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and Canada today have announced funding packages under the PURL initiative to purchase American weapons for Ukraine totaling more than $1 billion. Besides, Canada and the United Kingdom have announced additional practical assistance packages worth approximately $40 million.

The United Kingdom will provide additional £10 million for the restoration of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“...We are submitting two decisions for approval by member states. The first decision is an EU loan. This essentially involves raising funds on capital markets using the EU budget as collateral and transferring this capital to Ukraine in the form of a loan... The second decision... is a so-called “reparations loan”. Here, we would use the remaining funds from frozen russian assets in the European Union,” said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen regarding decisions that will cover Ukraine’s financial needs in 2026-2027.

“We also need to support Ukraine more. russian missiles continue to cause death and destruction. And winter has arrived. Ukraine needs our support like never before,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte emphasized during the opening of the Alliance’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.

“Türkiye is making every effort to end the war between Ukraine and russia by establishing a just and lasting peace... Contacts with the parties are continuing to revitalize the Istanbul process, and Türkiye is ready to do its best to open the door to peace as soon as possible”, reads a statement by  the office of President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Lithuania’s Permanent Representative to the UN Rytis Paulauskas has stressed that the international community must remain united and persistently demand that russia return every Ukrainian child that has been illegally taken away.

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The EU Council Presidency and European Parliament negotiators have reached a preliminary agreement on a gradual phase-out of russian gas imports by the end of 2027.

The European Commission will present a legislative proposal early next year to completely ban russian oil imports into the EU.

European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jørgensen called the EU’s decision to phase out russian gas imports by the end of 2027 historic and promised that the Bloc would never again return to russia’s energy blackmail.

The European Union will include russia in its list of countries with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.

No one should try to achieve through so-called peace talks results that cannot be achieved on the battlefield, and that is exactly what russia is trying to do. russia is trying to undermine the USA’s position in the world, russia is trying to split NATO,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Baiba Braže.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen has said that putin’s statement about russia’s readiness to go to war with Europe “even now” is an attempt to intimidate Europe.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRG Johann Wadephul believes that putin is looking for new excuses to avoid concrete peace negotiations.

Sweden, as a country located not far from russia, realizes that that country poses a real threat and must be restrained. This was stated by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Maria Malmer Stengard.

This year, about six kilometers of fence remain to be built on the Latvian-russian border in swampy and hard-to-reach areas, with construction planned to be fully completed by the end of 2025.

Europe’s largest neobank, Revolut, has banned russians from transferring money from 50 countries.

The Turkish company Besiktas Shipping has announced the suspension of shipping operations with russia.

The government of the rf has deemed the construction of the North Siberian railway line, which was to run from Nizhnevartovsk to Ürümqi in China, “inappropriate”. The decision to give up the project was made due to its high cost. The cost of its construction is estimated at 50 trillion rubles, while the “russian Railways” investment program had already been significantly reduced and will not exceed 1 trillion rubles in 2026.

Traffic on the Far Eastern Railway in January–November decreased by 5.1 % compared to the same period last year. The decline was due to the transportation of oil and oil products (-6.7 %), forest products (-9.2 %), industrial raw materials and molding materials (-20.1 %). The volume of transportation of the main cargo – coal – decreased by 2.4 %.

Sales of new cars in the rf  decreased by 23 % in November.

Sales of red caviar in russia declined by 45.1 % from January to September. In November, the average price of a 200-gram jar of red caviar was about 3,000 rubles. Year-on-year, the price increased by 33 %.

Due to problems with its own fishing and fish harvesting, russia was forced to import 79,000 tons of fish and seafood from China in the first 10 months of this year, which is by 12 % more than in 2024.

About 1.7 million people in russia will have to be involved in the economy annually until 2032 inclusive, and a total of 12.2 million people will need to be replaced, said Minister of Labor of the rf Kotyakov.

The state duma has rejected a draft law granting large families the right to receive housing under a social lease agreement on a priority basis.

From January to the end of November 2025, the number of incidents involving russian airlines’ aircraft increased approximately fourfold per year due to sanctions and a shortage of domestically produced spare parts. During this time, more than 800 cases of malfunctions were recorded in the country, leading to the cancellation or emergency interruption of flights, while in the same period in 2024, there were just over 200 such incidents.

russian companies have sharply reduced demand for New Year’s corporate parties due to the transition to austerity measures. The number of applications for New Year entertainment events declined by 30 % compared to last year.

In Siberia and the Far East, russians have once again been cut off from Telegram.

In 2022, 37 % of russians admitted that they believed in a secret world government, while  in 2025, 40 % of respondents said the same. In 2024, one in ten russians said they would believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life if putin told them so.

roskomnadzor has blocked the Roblox gaming platform, popular with  children in the rf, for spreading extremist materials and promoting LGBT themes.

“The only possible response to the lukashenko regime’s hybrid attacks” is the introduction of “new, tough sectoral sanctions against belarus”, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys.

During his visit to Algeria, lukashenko met with the country’s Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb. He said that belarus is ready to cooperate with Algeria in many areas and called for more active investment in projects, because money “means nothing”.

belarus’ parliament has adopted in the second reading the draft republican budget with a deficit of 4.35 billion rubles.

Overall, prices in belarus have risen by approximately 42 % over the past five years.

Support for the union with russia has grown to 44 % in belarus, while only 27 % of belarusians support the war against Ukraine.

Only a third of belarusians are aware of the possible deployment of russian nuclear weapons on their territory.

In the five years and almost four months – since the presidential election on August 9, 2020, and until November 30, 2025 – at least 1,984 NGOs – organizations, trade unions, foundations, non-governmental institutions, and associations – have been liquidated in belarus.